Moving furnace to the attic?

Feli123May 2, 2012

I have a 1900 square foot ranch house in Northern Virginia. After getting several estimates, I am planning on replacing the old terra cotta floor duct work with new flex duct in the attic (I have been told the existing floor duct work is too small for proper air flow). The only problem is that our current blower and coil are in a utility closet and there isn't much room to enlarge the ductwork above due to the low pitch of the roof. It has been recommended by a couple of companies that I just move the new 2 1/2 ton furnace (and coil I guess?) up to the attic, and then the new duct work could be laid out more easily. Does this make sense? My two concerns would be that the attic floor is not strong enough to support a heavy thing like a furnace, and also having the gas pilot lighting up, would you be more likely to have fumes or a fire? Also, it would be harder to get to for the purpose of changing filters, etc. Does anyone have any thoughts on whether this would be a good thing to do?

If unit is old do not move it if you are getting new equipment moving it to the attic will be a little more costly. No nothing will blow up in the attic as long as there is proper venting and no explosive material adjacent to the unit.

The house is a one story ranch on a slab. The furnace and coil are in a utility closet in one corner of the house right now. The ducts are between the slab and the flooring. The idea would be to replace the floor ducts with new flex duct in the attic which would be properly sized. In addition, we are planning on replacing furnace, coil and outside ac unit with new Carrier equipment. The contractor has proposed moving the new furnace up to the attic because it would be easier to set up the flex duct that way. I am wondering if it makes sense to do this. The house is not large (3 bedroom/2 bath) ... we hadn't considered mini splits. The proposals we have received so far have been to replace the current equipment with new equipment and fix the duct work.